Inheriting no lease tenant whose paying below market

[Colton Crockett]

I am looking to purchase a duplex that I plan to house hack. The current tenants were family friends of the deceased owner. They are paying well below market value with no lease and would like to stay. My agent has suggested that we offer them the option to sign a lease prior to closing to ensure that there are no issues after closing. If they are unable to pay the increase what are the options for eviction? Is there a requirement for notice in PA for a non-lease tenant or can I make it part of my offer contingencies that they have to have the tenant vacated upon closing? Also, has anyone dealt with getting a tenant to sign a lease before closing actually occurs? I'm worried if that is even possible.

[Account Closed]

I would not go with a lease.  I'd go with month to month, to see if you want to live next door to them going forward.  Odds are, you will not.  So, just write up a month to month agreement.  Since they don't have a lease now, that's all you have to do.  Not sure if you need to give them 30 or 60 or however many days notice - find out.  In CA, if they've been paying rent for 12 months or longer, they get 60 days notice of any raise in rent, etc.

Also, you don't need to get them to sign anything if they're on month to month.  All you need to do is give them the proper amount of notice of new terms to their agreement.  So, "Dear Tenant, this is your 60 day notice of changes in terms of tenancy, as follows....."

This can be way easier than trying to get them to sign something they may keep putting off signing.  Send it with some sort of delivery confirmation, even just USPS priority mail.  You can also hand it to them, but I suggest also sending it with proof of delivery, in case you need to go to court, which hopefully you won't need to do - but just in case.